Bill Would Require Full Transparency in Healthcare Pricing

The Daily Sentinel

But after the Lafayette Democrat was approached by a friend who wants to help lower medical costs by making all health care providers and insurance companies more fully disclose what they are charging, Foote couldn’t resist.

As a result, he’s now planning to introduce a never-before-considered proposal into the Colorado Legislature that will closely resemble several proposed ballot measures, each of which attempts to use the free market to force prices down.

“This is unconditional transparency,” Foote said of the idea. “The premise of it is all or nothing. You can’t have partial transparency and have it meaningful. This would create a real market. If you have a real market, the prices won’t be so crazy. You won’t get charged $1,000 for a Kleenex box. In a grocery store market, that would never fly.”

That friend was David Silverstein, founder of BrokenHealthcare.org, a nonprofit group that wants all states to follow Colorado’s lead in forcing complete transparency in health care pricing.